Fresh from the collapse of his marriage, and with the criminal Jhereg organization out to eliminate him, Vlad decides to hide out among his relatives in faraway Fenario. All he knows about them is that their family name is Merss and that they live in a papermaking industrial town called Burz. At first Burz isn’t such a bad place, though the paper mill reeks to high heaven. But the longer he stays there, the stranger it becomes. No one will tell him where to find his relatives. Even stranger, when he mentions the name Merss, people think he’s threatening them. The witches’ coven that every Fenarian town and city should have is nowhere in evidence. And the Guild, which should be protecting the city’s craftsmen and traders, is an oppressive, all-powerful organization, into which no tradesman would ever be admitted.Then a terrible thing happens. In its wake, far from Draegara, without his usual organization working for him, Vlad is going to have to do his sleuthing amidst an alien people: his own.Permanent collection.

I liked the book a lot - I just wish I had time to try reading these in chronological order. (The events of this book take place right after what happened in Phoenix.) I've been reading Brust's blog/LJ, so it was interesting to see how some things mentioned in it had made their way into the book - like flaisl and pig eatin's.

83. Academ's Fury (Book Two of the Codex Alera)84. Cursor's Fury (Book Three of the Codex Alera)Permanent collection (at least for now).Codex Alera (Wikipedia):"The five books in the series so far chronicle the life of a young man named Tavi in the empire of Alera, on the world of Carna. Every Aleran of every rank and station, except for Tavi, has some degree of command over elemental forces or spirits called furies. The story takes place after the rise of a fictional empire similar to Rome where the First Lord must stave off in-fighting amongst the nobility of a now decadent empire, and hold the throne through sheer force of strength and will. Tavi, trapped by fate in the midst of conflicts at home and abroad, must use all of his intelligence to save Alera.

76. Living Dead in Dallas77. Club Dead78. Dead to the World79. Dead as a Doornail80. Definitely Dead81. All Together DeadPermanent collection.

I suspected that watching True Blood would lead to (re)reading The Southern Vampire Mysteries... and that's exactly what happened.Wikipedia: The Southern Vampire Mysteries is about a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who works in a northern Louisiana bar. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night.

BC journal entrySince 1990 Julian Barnes has written a regular 'Letter from London' for the New Yorker magazine. These already celebrated pieces cover subjects as diverse as Lloyd's insurance disaster, the rise and fall of Margaret Thatcher, the troubles of the Royal Family and of the hapless Nigel Short in his battle with Gary Kasparov in the 1993 World Chess Finals. With an incisive assessment of Salman Rushdie's plight and an analysis of the implications of being linked to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel, Letters from London provides a vivid and telling portrait of Britain in the Nineties.

It took me ages to finish this book. Recommended to insomniacs. *yawn*

BC journal entryLaura Clayborne is a successful journalist with a successful stockbroker husband. But her marriage is foundering and her biological clock is winding down. David, her newborn son, is the only light in her life.Mary Terrell, alias Mary Terror, is a scarred survivor of the Sixties. A former member of the terrorist Storm Front Brigade, she now festers in a world of warped memories and unrelenting rage. Quite simply, Mary Terror is mad. Murderously mad.When Mary Terror steals Laura's baby and heads west, killing anyone in her way, Laura realizes the only way to stop her is to hunt her down. But the closer she gets to Mary, the more she must think and act like her...I got the book from tintti at the first ever Finnish BC meet-up back in 2003. I finally read it this year (thanks to Tarna's Mt TBR Mining Challenge). It took over hundred pages before I found the story even remotely interesting. "A novel of taut and unrelenting suspense?" No. Ridiculous and boring? Yes.

BC-kirjaOn a routine mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a large magnetic field. On closer examination, it is discovered to be an artificial planetoid, one of three generation ships lost for over 250 years. Having been in flight for 3000 years, it now contains over one million individuals.

I don't know what to say about this one. The book was better than I expected. Reading it was like watching an episode of the tv series.

39. Jim Butcher: White NightPermanent collection. The Dresden Files, Book 9.Someone is targeting Chicago's magic practitioners, the members of the supernatural underclass who don't possess enough power to become full-fledged wizards. Some have vanished. Others appear to be victims of suicide. But now the culprit has left a calling card at one of the crime scenes - a message for Harry Dresden.

I haven't grown tired of this series. Far from it. As long as Butcher keeps writing them, I'll keep reading them. :-)

40. Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs, Tina Hannan: Nanny Ogg's CookbookBC bookringNanny Ogg, one of Discworld's most famous witches, is passing on some of her huge collection of tasty and above all interesting recipes, since everyone else is doing it. But in addition to the delights of the Strawberry Wobbler and Nobby's Mum's Distressed Pudding, Mrs Ogg imparts her thoughts on life, death, etiquette ('If you go to other people's funerals they'll be sure to come to yours'), courtship, children and weddings, all in a refined style that should not offend the most delicate of sensibilities. Well, not much.

Well, the book had a couple of jokes that made me laugh, but real Discworld novels are much better than these "spin-off books".

BC journal entryBook description from Amazon.com:Tohru Honda was an orphan when one day fate kicked her out of the house and on to land belonging to the mysterious Sohma family. After stumbling upon the teenage squatter, the Sohmas invite Tohru to stay in their house in exchange for cooking and cleaning. Everything goes well until she discovers the Sohma family's secret, when hugged by members of the opposite sex, they turn into their Chinese Zodiac animal!

The interesting part? The shapeshifting Sohma family and their curse. Everything else? Not so interesting. And I still don't like cutesy characters with saucer-sized eyes.I've got two other manga books in my TBR pile (Kaze Hikaru Vol. 1 and Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 2) and I'm going to read them, but... I'm starting to suspect that manga just isn't my cup of tea.

Amazon.com:Readers of epic fantasy series are: (1) patient--they are left in suspense between each volume, (2) persistent--they reread or at least review the previous book(s) when a new installment comes out, (3) strong--these 700-page doorstoppers are heavy, and (4) mentally agile--they follow a host of characters through a myriad of subplots. In A Game of Thrones, the first book of a projected six, George R.R. Martin rewards readers with a vividly real world, well-drawn characters, complex but coherent plotting, and beautifully constructed prose, which Locus called "well above the norms of the genre."

(2) - reread. That's what I'm doing. I need to refresh my memory before reading A Feast for Crows.